This invention relates to a novel apparatus for removing oil mist, and more particularly to an apparatus incorporating an oil adsorbent layer for removing oil mist from an air stream with improved efficiency and without creating increased resistance to the air flow.
Oil mist removing apparatus heretofore known incorporate a fan which, when rotated, draws oil mist-containing air into a main body and passes the air through a rotating filter to cause the oil mist to adhere to the filter, such that when the particles of mist on the filter coalesce into oil droplets, the droplets are centrifugally forced outwardly against the inner peripheral wall of the main body by the rotation of the filter and are thereafter allowed to descend the wall and flow out of an oil outlet at the bottom of the wall.
The known apparatus, however, have the drawback that droplets of oil, while on the inner wall before reaching the outlet, are forced off the wall surface by the air pressure within the main body and are converted again into to a mist or vapor. This reduces the mist or vapor removal efficiency of the apparatus. To overcome the drawback, some apparatus include a second filter rearwardly of the rotatable filter and a third filter at the air outlet. Such apparatus, however, are complex and expensive in construction and require increased labor for maintenance and inspection as well as for the replacement of the filters. Moreover the provision of the second and third filters produces increased resistance to the air flow, consequently resulting in a reduction in the rate of air intake. With quantities of the oil mist adhering to the filters, a progressively decreasing removal efficiency will result, and a further reduction in the rate of air intake occurs. Thus a poor overall removal efficiency is inevitable.